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Manto fire, April 2020 Manto, Juticalpa, Silca

Out · last detection 30 Apr 2020, 19:34 UTC

The fire started on 23 April 2020 in Manto, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,264 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in Olancho since 2016 (of 227 with a page). Number 25 in Honduras in 2020, of 174.

Burnt area
4,264ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
23 Apr 2020 – 30 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
23 Apr
2020
Heat detections
238
in a single hotspot: 119 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Apr 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Apr30 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627282930

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

35°high
47km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 6 May.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Manto where it started
    1,995 ha reached on 16 Apr
    3.8 %
  2. Juticalpa
    1,279 ha reached on 18 Apr
    0.5 %
  3. Silca
    1,015 ha reached on 24 Apr
    4.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
16 Apr 33.0 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Apr 31.4 °C 30 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Apr 32.0 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Apr 32.3 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Apr 34.9 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Apr 34.2 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Apr 32.9 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
23 Apr 33.2 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Apr 34.7 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Apr 32.7 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Apr 32.6 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Apr 32.8 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Apr 29.4 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
29 Apr 31.1 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Apr 33.4 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 May after 30.2 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 May after 31.2 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 May after 31.7 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 May after 32.4 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 May after 30.3 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 May after 32.7 °C 38 % 36 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 21

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 16 Apr 2020
After · 7 May 2020

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 238Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Honduras ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Manto fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 April 2020 and 30 April 2020: 8 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,264 hectares (42.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Manto (1,995 ha, 3.8 %); Juticalpa (1,279 ha, 0.5 %); Silca (1,015 ha, 4.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Honduras (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 911

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error
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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 911.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.